Antidemocracy in America

On Election Day in 2016, it seemed unthinkable to many Americans that Donald Trump could become president of the United States. But the victories of the Obama administration hid from view fundamental problems deeply rooted in American social institutions and history. The election’s consequences drastically changed how Americans experience their country, especially for those threatened by the public outburst of bigotry and repression. Amid the deluge of tweets and breaking news stories that turn each day into a political soap opera, it can be difficult to take a step back and see the big picture. To confront the threats we face, we must recognize that the Trump presidency is a symptom, not the malady.

Antidemocracy in America is a collective effort to understand how we got to this point and what can be done about it. Assembled by the sociologist Eric Klinenberg as well as the editors of the online magazine Public Books, Caitlin Zaloom and Sharon Marcus, it offers essays from many of the nation’s leading scholars, experts on topics including race, religion, gender, civil liberties, protest, inequality, immigration, climate change, national security, and the role of the media. Antidemocracy in America places our present in international and historical context, considering the worldwide turn toward authoritarianism and its varied precursors. Each essay seeks to inform our understanding of the fragility of American democracy and suggests how to protect it from the buried contradictions that Trump’s victory brought into public view.

Antidemocracy in America is essential reading for understanding the deep divisions within American society, which are not new and have led us to this critical moment in U.S. political culture. Alondra Nelson, author of The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation After the Genome

This provocative book offers an all-star lineup for scholars from multiple disciplines who provide a fascinating analysis of the anti-democratic forces that have gained hold within the United States. As readers try to make sense of the era of Trump, this is a perfect starting point to make sense of the troubling developments we have seen. Kevin Kruse and Julian Zelizer, coauthors of Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974

This book offers readers more than respite from the relentless buzz of tweets, shares, and posts that overcrowd our daily consciousness; it supplies a beneficial point of departure for thinking critically about the direction of our political life in these challenging times. Antidemocracy in America is thoughtfully curated and insightful. Anthony S. Chen, author of The Fifth Freedom: Jobs, Politics, and Civil Rights in the United States, 1941-1972

Recommended for readers seeking a critique of the Trump administration from multiple progressive liberal perspectives based on public policy themes. Library Journal

Introduction: The Big Picture, by Eric KlinenbergPart I. The Crisis: Where We AreResource Extraction, by Michelle Wilde AndersonConfronting Manhood After Trump, by Lisa WadePredatory Real Estate, by Thomas J. SugrueThe Misinformation Society, by Victor PickardDefending Open Cities, by Saskia SassenCriminalizing Immigrants, by Alina DasTrump, Trade, and War, by Oona A. Hathaway and Scott J. ShapiroRule by Misrule, by Richard SennettSchool of Trump, by Pedro NogueraTrump on Twitter: How a Medium Designed for Democracy Became an Authoritarian’s Mouthpiece, by Fred TurnerTrump’s Attack on Knowledge, by Craig CalhounPart II. The Collapse: How We Got HereThe Devastated House of Labor, by Margaret LeviUnholy Alliances, by Shamus KhanCoalthink, by Gretchen BakkeViolence and Criminal Justice, by Patrick SharkeyWomen Voters, Left and Right, by Linda GordonThe Office of the Presidency, by Robert ShrumReligion and the Republic, by Philip GorskiEvangelical Voters, by Tanya Marie LuhrmannGun Culture, by Harel ShapiraBlack Women and the FBI, by Ashley FarmerConfederate Revisionist History, by Douglas S. MasseyTrump’s Charisma, by Steven LukesUnequal America, by Michelle Jackson and David B. GruskyPart III. The Solutions: What We Can DoWorking-Class Environmentalism, by Daniel Aldana CohenDefending Society, by Wendy BrownProtest, Violent and Nonviolent, by Judith ButlerSocial Solidarity, by Michele Lamont“The Parliament of Bodies”, by Jack HalberstamThe Right Type of Citizenship, by Jefferson CowieMultiracial Cooperation, by William Julius WilsonList of Contributors

Short-listed, 2019 Digital Book World Awards, Best Book Published by a University Press

About the Author

Eric Klinenberg is professor of sociology and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. His most recent book is Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life (2018).

Caitlin Zaloom is associate professor of social and cultural analysis at New York University. She is the author of Out of the Pits: Traders and Technology from Chicago to London (2006) and Indebted: How Families Make College Work at Any Cost (2019) and cofounder and coeditor in chief of Public Books.

Sharon Marcus is Orlando Harriman Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. She is the author of Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England (2007) and The Drama of Celebrity (2019) and cofounder and coeditor in chief of Public Books.

Series

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